Updated: 04-1-2000

Major news events of the year

March 2000

March 1 -- The Eugene S. Pulliam School of Journalism opened at Butler University in Indianapolis.

March 2 -- Kerrie Price was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the shooting deaths of two Indianapolis security guards

March 6 -- The U.S. Energy Dept. issued a report predicting that gasoline prices, already above $1.50 per gallon, will rise another 20 cents by the end of May and even higher during the summer driving season.

March 6 -- At the Indianapolis Zoo the world's first artificially conceived African elephant was born.

March 7 -- Presidential candidates George W. Bush and Al Gore scored big wins in the "Super Tuesday" slate of primaries, forcing challengers John McCain and Bill Bradley to reassess whether to continue their campaigns.

March 8 -- Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson said the city will not appeal a $2.6 million jury award in the 1987 shooting death of Michael Taylor, who died of a gunshot wound to the head while in the back of a police cruiser with his hands cuffed behind his back.

March 9 -- Indiana Gov. Frank O'Bannon called for a review of the state's death penalty laws and procedures. O'Bannon stopped short of imposing a moratorium on executions as was done recently in Illinois, where several death row inmates were exonerated with DNA tests.

March 10 -- Suspected Indianapolis bank robber Ramon Molina committed suicide in his car after police followed him from the scene of a robbery.

March 11 -- Indianapolis police officers shot and killed Robert A. Johnson, 25, as he drove at them in an alley following an eight-mile chase. A witness said the car would have run the officers down had they not fired. .

March 14 -- In a television news report broadcast on CNN, former Indiana University basketball player Neil Reed alleged that Coach Bob Knight once grabbed him by the neck in a choking manner during a practice. Reed also said Knight once ejected IU President Myles Brand from a practice because Brand was talking. Brand and other IU officials said the allegations were previously investigated and were unfounded.

March 14 -- Indiana Gov. Frank O'Bannon signed into law a bill allocating the state's share of the national tobacco settlement to a list of public health causes.

March 15 -- Former Indianapolis Police Officer Robert Neely was sentenced to two years in prison on his bribery conviction for using his police authority and patrol car to intimidate an exotic dancer into having sex with him.

March 16 -- David Malinski was sentenced to 155 years in prison for the July 1999 abduction and murder of Lorraine Kirkley in Porter County, Ind. The victim's body was never found. Malinski claimed he helped her fake her own death.

March 17 -- The White House announced that Smith & Wesson, the nation's largest gun manufacturer, agreed to require safety locks on all the guns it sells. The company also agreed to immediately start developing "smart guns" that can be fired only by their owners. In return, the gunmaker will be protected from lawsuits over gun deaths.

March 17 -- In Atlanta, Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, known in the 1960s as black militant H. Rap Brown, disappeared after allegedly shooting two police officers as they tried to serve him an arrest warrant.

March 18 -- Herman B Wells died at his Bloomington, Ind. home at the age of 97. Wells served as president and then chancellor of Indiana University for 63 years.

March 21 -- In a blow to the Clinton Administration, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Food and Drug Administration does not have the authority to regulate tobacco as a drug. The court said Congress would have to explicitly grant that authority to the executive branch in order for the FDA to have authority.

Pope John Paul II speaks with Israel's Chief Rabbi, Israel Meir Lau. AP photo

March 21 -- Pope John Paul II arrived in Israel on a five-day tour to retrace the steps of Jesus.

March 23 -- Indiana University President Myles Brand ordered an investigation into allegations that basketball coach Bob Knight choked a player during a practice three years earlier.

March 23 -- Indianapolis Patrolman Harry Eugene Czaplinski was indicted on misdemeanor charges of intimidation and official misconduct as a result of a Feb. 10 altercation he had with a motorist on Interstate-70.

March 26 -- 'American Beauty' won Best Picture and four other Oscars at the 72nd Annual Academy Awards.

March 26 -- Former KGB officer Vladimir Putin was elected president of Russia by a landslide margin over 10 challengers. Putin was appointed prime minister by Boris Yeltsin in August 1999 and became acting president after Yeltin's surprise resignation at the end of the year.

March 27 -- Bob Gardner announced he would step down as commissioner of the Indiana High School Athletic Association.

March 30 -- A Marion County, Ind. grand jury issued indictments against former Excise Police officer John C. Dugan Jr. and topless dancer Melissa Stonebraker as a result of an eight-month investigation into allegations that Dugan and other Indiana Excise Police officers received sexual favors and gifts of food and alcohol from certain businesses.

March 30 -- In Greenwood, Ind., a husband and wife were found dead in a hot tub at a fantasy-theme motel. Autopsies revealed that William and Gudrun Reynolds, of Springville, Ind. had consumed dozens of sleeping pills. The pair had recently been arrested on charges of harvesting marijuana.

March 31 -- Conseco announced it divested itself of Green Tree Financial Corp., a Minnesota mobile home lender it bought for $6 billion in 1998. The announcement came after a long, painful slide in the insurance company's stock, which was valued at more than $50 per share before the acquisition and declined since to little more than $10.